Why did Judas do it? Was it the money, the thirty pieces of silver? He did have a reputation for dipping into the poor box from time to time (John 12:6), so the cash may have been part of it. But thirty pieces of silver was not that much, and he returned it after the deed was done anyway.

If, like the other disciples, he was perennially worried about where he stood in the pecking order, he may also have been reacting to some imagined slight. After all, he was the only one of the twelve who was not a Galilean. Shouldn't his job as treasurer have had him included with the inner circle of Peter, James, and John?

Was it disappointment? Some Jews were fanatic nationalists who were prepared to go to any lengths to drive the Romans from Palestine. They were called the sicarii, the dagger-bearer…